OTTAWA — Green leader Elizabeth May has joined Afghanistan’s delegation at an international climate change summit in Poland after the Harper government didn’t respond to her request to join the Canadian team.

May, who previously turned toward Papua New Guinea to be able to enter the meeting rooms at a 2011 climate change summit in South Africa, said Monday that she wrote to Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq in September to inquire about this month’s United Nations climate change summit in Poland.

But the opposition MP from British Columbia said in an interview that Aglukkaq and the government didn’t acknowledge her request, and as a result, May decided on her own to find a way to attend the summit, with her Green Party funding all of her expenses.

“Isn’t it sad?” said May. “Here I am in Warsaw because the government of Afghanistan thought I could be helpful in their delegation and the government of Canada didn’t even show enough respect to respond to a letter asking if I could be on the delegation.”

Without accreditation from Afghanistan, May could have participated in events on the sidelines of the conference, but would not be allowed in official negotiating sessions.

She said an Australian academic on Afghanistan’s delegation invited her since they have a small team of four people and could use help in following all of complex sessions and meetings ongoing simultaneously at the summit. But May added that she would not be speaking on Afghanistan’s behalf.

It is common at United Nations talks for developing nations to approach foreigners for support and expertise in their respective delegations.

May noted that Canada had a long-standing tradition, under previous governments, of including opposition parties in negotiations at international summits to represent the views of all Canadians. But she said this tradition changed in recent years.

In 2006, opposition Canadian MPs received accreditation as “observers” through environmental groups at a United Nations climate change summit that was hosted in Kenya. But in 2008, former environment minister Jim Prentice invited opposition MPs to join his delegation at the annual summit, held that year in Poland.

“Traditionally, the notion was when Canada went to an international meeting, our delegation reflected Canada, not the party in power,” May said, noting that former prime minister Brian Mulroney included a diverse representation of civil society groups at the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil. “That was the pattern until Stephen Harper became prime minister.”

Aglukkaq wasn’t available for an interview Monday, and her office wasn’t immediately able to respond to questions about how it selected its delegation and what it thought about May’s letter of request.

But the minister’s office issued a statement saying that the Canadian government was “taking a leadership role” in addressing international climate change by focusing on economic and environmental efforts at home such as regulations to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired electricity plants and vehicles, while investing money in support of climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

The statement coincided with two international reports, one from international environmental groups and the other from a Washington-based think tank called the Center for Global Development, that found Canada had one of the worst environmental and climate change records in the developed world.

Environment Canada also released a report this month stating that the country was drifting further away from Harper’s international climate change goal of reducing annual carbon emissions to 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, and that it was unlikely to meet it because of rising emissions from the oil and gas sector.

The New Democrats and Liberals also said they requested to join Canada’s delegation, but received no response and decided not to pursue the matter.

“I’ve got to hand it to Elizabeth (May) for creativity and it is ironic that for a Canadian member of Parliament to be accredited at an international conference, one has to join in a delegation in a country (where) we’ve been having a war for the last 12 years,” said Liberal environment critic John McKay.